STEAD
Yes, STEAD was the Wordle answer on July 9, 2022 (Wordle #385).
As an opener, it rules out about 95.2% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /stɛd/
- Noun
-
The position or function (of someone or something), as taken on by a successor.
- Noun
-
A place as it relates to a role, service, or ability; capacity.
- Verb
-
To help, support, benefit or assist; to be helpful.
- Verb
-
To fill the stead or place of something.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Wordle status
A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.
Playable guess
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: July 9, 2022 (#385).
See the full page for that puzzle: July 9, 2022 (#385).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How STEAD performs as a guess
STEAD is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 88.5% of games, misses completely in 11.5%, and leaves about 114 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,363 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 guesses in games solved within six turns.
Try your feedback pattern
Tap the tiles to match your feedback, then see the ranked follow-up guesses.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe STEAD used as an opening guess. Entropy is the same idea as “avg ruled out” on a log scale: a higher number means the guess splits the possible answers into more, smaller groups.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How STEAD performed in the previous complete opener benchmark, against its captured answer snapshot. These research figures are separate from today's solver recommendations. See the data page for the method.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches STEAD in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
STEAD can come back 108 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for STEAD; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing STEAD
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to STEAD.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing STEAD:
Research on STEAD
Game-tree analysis and word research for STEAD, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with STEAD, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,695 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
No guaranteed hard-mode solve In hard mode, no strategy that opens with STEAD can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, at or below the proven-optimal 3.65, because the two figures score different answer lists.
These figures come from exhaustive game-tree search and are exact for the NYT lists of July 2023 (3,158 answers). They do not use the site's working answer pool.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, STEAD is a kind of part.
Synonyms PLACE position lieu
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- STEAD sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.3 of 5).
In a sentence
I think that I should be doing it in your stead.
He went in his father's stead.
Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).